Comparing Relationships in Susan Minot's Lust and Coraghessan Boyle's Carnal Knowledge
"After the briskness of loving, loving stops"-Susan Minot
This quote from Minot summarizes the love affairs in her short story "Lust" and T. Coraghessan Boyle's short story "Carnal Knowledge." The protagonists in these stories go to great lengths to please their significant others hoping to find loving, fulfilling relationships. They make sacrifices and relinquish certain degrees of power to find happiness, only to discover that this happiness is temporary. Both authors use literary techniques to enhance these themes. The short stories "Lust" and "Carnal Knowledge" maintain that relationships that lack an honest, loving foundation and a lack of balance of power end abruptly and cause pain and loneliness.
The love the narrator hopes to find in Minot's "Lust" continually eludes her. The story consists of a young female narrator recollecting her numerous sexual experiences with numerous partners. Her motivation is not licentious, nor is she proud of her experiences, she is only struggling to find comfort and emotional fulfillment. Unfortunately, her experiences only take her further and further from the love and acceptance she yearns for. Sex initially makes the narrator feel loved, appreciated, and valued. She loved feeling "safe, at rest, in a restful dream" (258), as she would feel when he would first begin touching her with tender caresses. It becomes almost an addiction for her, a necessity for happiness. Ironically, it is an addiction that does not satisfy the need. Like a drug, sex brings the narrator a temporary means of escape and a temporary "high", yet after the the "high" is gone, she feels empty, alone, and ...
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...d the last few paragraphs have no mention of Alena. This also helps to demonstrate how she flew in and out of Jim's life. Her effect on him was very short-lived and impermanent, and he is able to return to his old way of life after she is gone.
Both "Lust" and "Carnal Knowledge" examine very brief love affairs. The relationships depicted in each story lack a solid foundation, therefore they cannot last. Power imbalances exist in these relationships that intensify the pain of the protagonists. Both characters initially derive great pleasure from the relationship only for it to slip away and leave them feeling empty and lonely because "After the briskness of loving, loving stops."
Works Cited
Boyle, T. Coraghessan. "Carnal Knowledge." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 242-255.
"They turn casually to look at you, distracted, and get a mild distracted surprise, you're gone. Their blank look tells you that the girl they were fucking is not there anymore. You seem to have disappeared.(pg.263)" In Minot's story Lust you are play by play given the sequential events of a fifteen year old girls sex life. As portrayed by her thoughts after sex in this passage the girl is overly casual about the act of sex and years ahead of her time in her awareness of her actions. Minot's unique way of revealing to the reader the wild excursions done by this young promiscuous adolescent proves that she devalues the sacred act of sex. Furthermore, the manner in which the author illustrates to the reader these acts symbolizes the likeness of a list. Whether it's a list of things to do on the weekend or perhaps items of groceries which need to be picked up, her lust for each one of the boys in the story is about as well thought out and meaningful as each item which has carelessly and spontaneously been thrown on to a sheet of paper as is done in making a list. This symbolistic writing style is used to show how meaningless these relationships were but the deeper meaning of why she acted the way she did is revealed throughout the story. Minot cleverly displayed these catalysts in between the listings of her relationships.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
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